Monuments have been around ever since 1890, which was a hundred year after the United States are founded. Some monuments are statues that were builded by our society and some are naturally formed. Monuments held a specific meaning behind each one of them which makes the monument more unique. In the past hundred years, the amount of monuments raised rapidly which occurred controversy between the communities. Every monuments has a purpose of being where it is regardless if it’s just for show or not. With that thought, there is no reason for the monument to be removed due to someone’s opinions about the monument meaning. When we review a petition of a monument being removed, we should review it critically and if it’s reasonable enough.
Ever since monuments existed, the debates between whether it should stay or being removed gave the society a big question mark. Since each monument have an individual meaning, the thought of it being removed should be carefully determined by the government. On the other hand, if a community can not thought of a good reason for it to be take down, then it should not be proceed. If the government wants to build a new monument statues, the project should be view critically base on the background meaning, area which mean the community and cost to prevent conflicts. One reason why monument should be kept is because it teaches us lessons of the past. In an article call Why we shouldn’t pull down all those confederate memorials by Alfred L. Brophy, it states “Primarily, there’s a danger that we’ll forget the connections of past racial crimes to correct racial inequality.” If we get rid of the statues, how can we learn about the mistakes or the achievements we have in the past? Think back to Grade school, we have field trip to many different types of statues for a better understanding of the lesson we have. One important thing people forgot about is that removing a statues cost money, who’s going to pay for the expense?
Many people acknowledge facts that some monument statues are inappropriate for the public to be seen. They claim that some statues reminds everyone America’s dark history. It’s such a big debate because some citizen agrees that its distributing however some state that remembering our history reminds us not to make the same mistake again. One dark history I’m really interested in is the discrimination of African American. It was a dark age for all the African Americans, they were force to bought on ship and being sold in the market. Theres no education being provided for them and the only place they get to eat, live in is their master’s house, who they work for and who bought them in the market with money. The situation change when Martin Luther King interfere telling the world everyone should be treated equally, because of his action, protesting started to happen, slavery was slowly dying out. In honor of Martin Luther King, the African American community builded a statues to remind the next generation who gave new lives to the race, however, I’ve seen lots of comments and posts wanting the statues to be removed.
The removal of Martin Luther King’s statues should not be proceed. Behind the monument, it contains meaning of the past our country went through. Other race claim that the monument is “racist” and “offensive” while the statues just placed there to resemble the past. I found a petition online about the reasons why we should removed the statues, the person said “we the people feel that is it honoring and supporting racial hatred towards white people.” Martin Luther King plays a major part in the history, honoring him should be allow. I understand some monument can be offensive toward a specific group of race but it should not be the main reason why a monument can be taken down because of that. There’s not a good reason that’s being given to the public for us to agree it should be removed.
If the statues of Martin Luther King is taken down due to racism then I believe African American have the right to revolt and start a petition to take down George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s monument. George Washington is United State’s first president but he’s also a slave owner and so is Thomas Jefferson. In the article call Don’t Take Down Confederate Monuments. Here’s why by Sophia A. Nelson, she states “the people who hated having black classmates at their school didn’t hate us because there were statues of Robert E. Lee or George Washington (our nation’s first president and a slave owner… If we start taking statues down, well, we better go for old Thomas Jefferson (master of a slave who was his mistress and mother of at least four of his children). And lets not forget President Trump’s favorite president, Old Hickory—Andrew Jackson. Another slave-holding Indian-killing president of our nation.” If Martin Luther King’s statues expresses racism towards a specific race then these president’s statues is doing the same thing. African American’s personal feelings of these statues should be the same as the others who wants to removed the Martin Luther King’s statues. If we review the petition, we should ask, if the reason is good enough to convince the community and the government. On the other hand, removing it because some people feel offended, then it should not be process because it’s affecting only a specific group or person, not the whole society.
Monuments are for the next generation to remember the historical events that happened. If we choose to take some of it down because of some reasons then how should the next generation learn about our past? No matter how negative a historical event can be, we have to learn to face them, not to run away from them. We need to learn our lesson from our past to make our present wiser.
Work cited:
Article: De Blasio’s begging for trouble with his ‘monuments review’
Author: Post Editorial Board
Time posted: September 8, 2017
Article: Don’t take down the confederate monument. Here’s why
Author: Sophia. A. Nelson
Time posted: October 9, 2017
